The Doll
by Pandaraffe
Summary: It's been nine years since the incident and Maka still cannot recover. Good thing the Shibusen Center for Trauma Rehabilitation is in town to help, right? TW: self-injury, abuse, and depression.
1. Look at Her

_I can't breathe. What's happening? My body _burns_. It's so hot in here. What's on top of me? Someone, anyone, please help me. Please, I can't take this anymore. It hurts, so, so much. Please, will someone have mercy? Mama… Papa… someone, anyone! Please! Help! I can't take this, my body, I can't breathe, please, send help. Please… help me… I can't take it… I think I might just… go away. Yeah, I'll go away, just for a bit. Anything that'll get me away from this… from them… from _him_… especially from him… _

_Bye-Bye._

* * *

><p>Elizabeth Thompson sifts through a vast variety of dresses. Her hands run through the various fabrics, feeling the cool cottons and smooth silks. She thinks of the younger girl sitting behind her, and settles for a pale yellow dress with quarter sleeves and white lace trim. She picks it and a pair of stockings, then bends to get the lone pair of black shoes. Despite the countless amounts of times she'd mended, dyed, and glued the shoes, the obvious sign of age is ever-present. <em>I wish I could buy her new shoes<em>, she absently thinks as she walks over to the girl.

Her mind wanders to her lousy job, which just barely let her keep a roof over their heads and food in their stomachs, as she sets down the attire. She strips the sitting girl of her button-up nightgown and lifts her arms. She takes the canary colored dress and puts the girl's arms through the proper holes, then her head, then fits it over her torso. She places the girl's arms down to her sides and gently pulls her hair out of the dress, letting it cascade down her back. She gets down and puts her small feet through the starch white stockings, then pulls them up, over her long legs, and stops at her thighs.

"Up you go," she murmurs as she lifts the girl to her feet. The girl remains standing, still as a statue. Elizabeth crouches down once again and shimmies the stockings higher, over her hips. "And down you go again," she sets the girl down. She remains near the ground and puts the black shoes on the girl's feet. "There we go," she finishes as she fastens the shoes and stands. She lightly grabs the girl's hand and pulls her to her feet, walking her to a simple wooden chair and setting her down again. Experienced hands run through the girl's golden hair, smoothing stray away hairs and eliminating knots as gently as humanly possible. "You have such beautiful hair," She sighs as she parts a section around her face, pulls it back, and ties it behind the girl's head. Satisfied, she takes a large black bow from the nearby dresser and clips it over the tie. "It's to your booty, girl!" She laughs happily as the slightest of blushes dusts the girl's creamy cheeks.

Just then, the bedroom door is nearly knocked off of its hinges by an energetic Patricia Thompson, a short girl with golden hair and considerably womanly figure; Elizabeth's younger sister. "LIZ! Black Star's back from German! He's here to stay! He's here to stay!" She jumps up to her sister and tackles her to the ground. "Liz! This is so great! You can't imagine how happy this makes me!" There are tears on her pink cheeks, but her cyan eyes are bright with joy. Elizabeth tries to be mad at her sister for tackling her, but fails miserably, for she hadn't seen her this happy since the love of her life had departed on a three year long mission to a foreign country.

"Gosh, Patty! Get off! I can't breathe! And he wasn't in German, he was in Germany, you idiot," She looks up to the girl on the chair and adds, "I have to get Maka to her appointment! Get off, you ditz!"

Patricia gets off of her seemingly annoyed sister and hurdles onto the silent girl. "Black Star's coming back, Maka! He's coming back for good!" She rubs her cheek against Maka's and gives her a tight hug. Maka remains still, but there is a slight paling to her skin. Seeing this, Elizabeth immediately gets up and removes her sister's arms from Maka.

"Patricia Thompson, watch it with Maka!" Patricia momentarily loses her excitement, apologizes, and then resumes her thrilled hopping.

"I'm sorry, Liz! I'm just so… Ah! He's coming back! He's finally coming back!" Elizabeth genuinely smiles and hugs her sister.

"Yes, yes, I know! And I'm happy for you! But please, let's get Maka to her appointment. We can't be late again," Patricia nods, but doesn't seize her grinning as she skips away, most likely to the kitchen. Satisfied with her sister's questionable cooperation, she turns to Maka. With deliberate cautiousness, she takes the girl's smooth hands with her calloused ones and lifts her to her feet. "Come on now, baby. Today, we might be able to get you something better than this," She skillfully guides the girl out of her room and to the short hallway. The pair pass a wall of old photographs containing bittersweet memories, a cluttered bedroom, a tiny bathroom, and stop at the clean yet jumbled kitchen, where Patricia is scarfing down a burrito. Elizabeth rolls her eyes and continues walking past the equally minuscule living room. "Come on, Patty," she shouts as she takes a ring of keys from an abandoned ashtray.

"Yeah, coming!" shouts Patricia with a mouthful of burrito and handful of cookies.

Elizabeth sighs and exits the cramped apartment, Maka in tow. "Sheesh, Patty, keep up will ya?"


	2. The Doctor

"Yes, yes, she's been more reactive lately," reassures Elizabeth. She sits in an office with sparse, bland furniture. The monochromatic walls are empty except for a few framed certificates. She tries to focus on anything—the sleek edges of the black desk, the scant books haphazardly placed on an industrial bookshelf, the wilting fern that tries, and fails, to liven up the otherwise dead office—anything, except for the person she is speaking with. In spite of how hard she tries, she can never seize to fear the man sitting before her. He's just so… _Creepy_.

"How so?" Counters an annoyed man in his mid-thirties as he pushes his wire-rimmed glasses up to the bridge of his nose. He has never been able to understand why such an irresponsible pair of girls were chosen to care for his patient.

"Well, just today, she blushed when I told her something. She also got pale when something happened to her." Elizabeth can't help but stare at the scars on the man's face. _What a creep. Who wears a lab coat to an appointment? And what's up with those damn glasses?! The glare is always covering his eyes!_ Perhaps that wasn't such a bad thing.

"What exactly caused her to blush and grow pale, Ms. Thompson?" The doctor can't help but want to bash his head into the desk. Or hers. Either is fine.

"I… uh… made a comment on her hair when she blushed. And a certain gorilla may have hugged her… causing her to… grow pale…" She drifts off uncomfortably. For a man whose eyes are covered, he sure as hell delivers a heavy glare.

"May you elaborate on what you told her? And I advise you to watch over my patient more carefully; you're lucky this embrace didn't set her off." _Maka couldn't have been placed in more incapable hands_, he concludes as he runs long fingers through similarly long silver hair.

"I told her it was getting long." She states.

"I doubt that made her blush, Ms. Thompson," He responds.

Elizabeth stares at her feet and takes deep, calming breaths. "I told her it was reaching her butt. Sheesh. Now, can we talk about how good it is that she's responding to things?"

Doctor Franken Stein steeples his fingers together and rests them over his mouth, resisting a groan of frustration. "Yes, yes, it is a considerable improvement. Maka seems to be responding to the treatment she has been given. Her mentality is far from grasping the full extent of her current situation, but it appears that she is trying to come out of her involuntary hiding. Please keep in mind that her trauma is still strongly intact, and that it may take months, even years, before she can begin to break out of her protective barrier and interact with others." He tilts his chair back and inspects Elizabeth's face. He is surprised that her expression is not that of a hopeless person, for another in her position might've responded with tears and a sign of broken expectations. He may have judged her incorrectly. "Now, what is it you said you wanted to talk about?"

Elizabeth feels like she cannot breathe. As she stares at the blank wall behind the doctor, she feels as if her sight dims. _Months_? Maybe even _years_? No. Maka doesn't deserve this… this… _pain. I can't imagine how I'd feel if I were in her position. My Maka is such a brave girl_, she thinks to herself_._ She flattens her hair back and sits straight. "Well, my younger sister Patricia recently began to work at a rehabilitation facility named Shibusen Center for Trauma Rehabilitation."

"Oh, yes, I have heard of this facility. Said to have a great program. Now, why are you telling me this? I hope it's not because you want me to congratulate your sister." Elizabeth bites her cheek in annoyance, but tries to ignore his asshole remark and focus on Maka's well-being.

"No, I didn't want you to do that. I want you to help her get into their program."

"Now, why would I do that? I'd be losing one of my most valued customers. I assume you see that her transfer wouldn't benefit me in the slightest." Elizabeth abruptly stands, plants her hands on his desk, and gives him her strongest glare. He seems unfazed.

"Listen, Stein. You're practically Maka's uncle. I know you and I both want her to get over this… _thing_ she's going through. And I'm definitely sure you know that Shibusen offers treatment that you cannot. Now, if you'd stop being an ass and give me a letter of recommendation and help me get her into that damn program, I'm sure Maka will be back to the way she was so many years ago." She feels tears pressing at the back of her eyes because she misses seeing Maka's happy smile and, damn, did she hate the way her eyes look so _dead_. She wishes she could give up her sanity and give it to Maka, but she's come to terms with how reality worked.

Stein sighs and drops his hands to his lap, his posture coming to a tired slouch. _The girl has a point_, he thinks resignedly. He tilts his head to the left, and sees a picture of a younger Maka and a not so tired version of himself, wearing their Sunday best and goofily posing in front of a fuming red-head. _I do miss her energy_. He sets the chair on all-fours and plants his hands on the desk, vaguely mimicking Maka's caretaker. "Very well, Ms. Thompson. I will help you get Maka into Shibusen. On one condition, though."

The girl is astounded, for she expected more of a fight from the doctor. It's a subconscious emotion though, because her main emotion at the moment is fear. "What is it?" She asks with a nervous gulp. _This creep better not ask me out!_

"May I dissect you?"

Elizabeth Thompson runs out of the room faster than he can give her his signature maniacal smile.


End file.
